Houston Relocation Professionals (HRP) recently announced the winners of its 2015 Scholarship Program. They are: Gregory Grimm, who relocated to Houston from Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Isaiah Odom, who relocated from Bakersfield, California. Each student was the recipient of a one-time award of $2,500.

Grimm graduated from Mayde Creek High School in Katy and will be attending Texas A&M University at Galveston, and Odom graduated from Oak Ridge High School in The Woodlands and will be attending Texas A&M University at College Station.

This was the third year for HRP's Scholarship Program, which was created as a tangible way for HRP to be able to give back to the local community, while investing in the next generation of leaders who relocated to Houston.

The Scholarship Program was open to high school seniors meeting the following criteria: in good standing in a Houston area accredited high school, had relocated between grades 9 and 12 due to their family's relocation, and had a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 on a scale of 4.0 (or equivalent achievement on a different scale).

As in previous years, the HRP Scholarship Committee selected the winners based on its evaluation of each applicant's academic performance, extracurricular activities, and on their submission of a personal essay addressing the challenges associated with their relocation and their subsequent achievements.

Don Rupe is vice president and general manager of Graebel Moving Services and serves on HRP's board of directors as the chairman of the scholarship committee. He said that HRP received 34 applications this year, which was a 10 percent increase over the previous year. He also said that HRP expanded the program this year to include more suburban schools districts in Fort Bend County, as well as in Spring and The Woodlands.

This year's applicants represented relocations to Houston from other cities within Texas, as well as moves from California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Missouri, Michigan, New York, Oregon, Illinois and Rhode Island. There were also three applicants who had relocated to Houston from outside of the U.S., having moved here from Australia, Columbia and the Philippines.

Rupe said that it was difficult for the scholarship committee to choose only two winners, as there were several applicants who were very deserving and who had written compelling essays. In fact, he said the committee ended up having to go through a tie-breaking process in order to make its decision on the final two winners.

"It was an agonizing choice for us, because they were all really wonderful students who are very involved in their communities," Rupe said. "It is really rewarding to see the kind of future leaders that we are developing here in our community."

Last month, Rupe arranged to have videos filmed of this year's scholarship winners reading their personal essays, which will be presented at HRP's Fall Educational Event scheduled for Sept. 30.

Rupe has been a member of HRP for 17 years and is a past president of the organization. He said that being involved with the scholarship program has been one of the most rewarding experiences thus far.

"This is a really cool outreach program for HRP. It's another way for us to touch our community and let our membership get to know a little bit about these kids that we are helping with their first year of college. In their essays, we ask the students to write about their relocation experience and give advice to other teenagers who are relocating, so I think it's very insightful and very educational and has been a great addition to the work that HRP does," Rupe said.

Plans are already under way for HRP's 2016 Scholarship Program, which Rupe said will be adjusted in order to increase the financial opportunity for the recipients by participating in Worldwide ERC's (Employee Relocation Council's) Foundation Scholarship Program.

"We are going to advance our timeline a little bit and start taking applications in December of this year. The application deadline will probably be toward the middle or end of February as opposed to April, which is what the deadline was this year. Then we will pick our winners and submit them to Worldwide ERC, where they will have the opportunity to receive some additional funds. So we are going to try to leverage what we are doing here and make it an even more rewarding opportunity for our applicants and winners," Rupe said.

HRP is a Recognized Regional Group for Worldwide ERC (Employee Relocation Council). Its mission is to provide meaningful educational, networking, and community outreach opportunities for professionals supporting workforce mobility.

Michelle Sandlin is a writer, journalist and relocation industry expert. She serves on the Board of Houston Relocation Professionals (HRP), and was President of the organization in 2014. Follow her on Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheMichelleSandlin and on Twitter: @MichelleSandlin. Also visit "On the Move - Exploring Houston Relocation with Michelle Sandlin" at blog.chron.com/onthemove. For questions and comments, email: michelle.sandlin@me.com.